was a Japanese actress who began as a

child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated ...

and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, ...

and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''

Twenty-Four Eyes is a 1954 Japanese drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Sakae Tsuboi. The film stars Hideko Takamine as a schoolteacher named Hisako Ōishi, who lives during the rise and fall of Japanese nati ...

'' (1954) and ''

Floating Clouds is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel of the same name by Japanese writer Fumiko Hayashi, published just before her death in 1951. The film received numerous national awards upon its release and remai ...

'' (1955) being among her most noted films.

Biography

Takamine was born in

Hakodate, Hokkaidō is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.83 ...

, in 1924. At the age of four, following the death of her mother, she was placed in the care of her aunt in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Her first role was in the

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not ...

studio's 1929 film ''Mother'' (''Haha''), which brought her tremendous popularity as a child actor. Many of the films of her early career were imitations of

Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...

films. After moving to the

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

studio in 1937, her dramatic roles in

Kajirō Yamamoto was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was known for his war films and comedies and as the mentor of Akira Kurosawa. The combined list of his efforts as a director for documentaries, silent, and sound films includes over 90 fi ...

's ''Tsuzurikata kyōshitsu'' (1938) and ''

Horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

'' (1941) brought her added fame as a girl star. She toured as a singer to entertain Japanese troops and, after the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, sang for American occupation troops in Tokyo. After initially appearing in a pro-

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

film, ''

Those Who Make Tomorrow is a 1946 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto (who was also co-writer). It was produced to illustrate the purpose of the workers' union at the Toho film studios, as the Allied Forces endorsed the for ...

'' (1946), she became appalled by the rigid practices of the union's leaders and members and, during the post-war strikes at Toho, first joined a new union before moving to the new

Shintoho was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big six film studios (which also included Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Toei Company, and Toho) during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Toho company fol ...

studios in 1947. In 1950, she left Shintoho and became a freelance actress. Her films with directors Keisuke Kinoshita and

during the 1950s made her Japan's top star. Notable films of this decade include Kinoshita's satirical comedy '' Carmen Comes Home'' (1951), Japan's first feature length colour film, and the antiwar drama ''

'' (1954), and Naruse's ''

'' (1955) and ''

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is a 1960 Japanese drama directed by Mikio Naruse. Plot Keiko (called " Mama" by the other characters), a young widow approaching 30, is a hostess at a bar in Ginza. Realizing she is getting older, she decides after talking to her bar manager, ...

'' (1960). She was especially favoured as leading actress by Naruse, appearing in 17 of his films between 1941 and 1966, which are considered "some of her finest performances" (Jasper Sharp), with her "sensitive yet resourceful persona" proving ideal for "Naruse's suffering, persevering heroines" (Alexander Jacoby). Film historian

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...

described the characters she portrayed as follows: "Like so many Japanese women then, they wanted more out of life, but couldn’t get it. The war may have been over, women found, but they weren’t better off. They were still fairly unhappy. So the kind of roles Takamine played fit the zeitgeist, may have even made that zeitgeist." Comparing Naruse and Kinoshita, Takamine explained: "Though different in style, they shared a common aversion to things that were not natural. What I tried to do was to be as natural as women we see in the news, but adding a touch of drama so that I would be even more real." She married writer-director

Zenzo Matsuyama was a Japanese screenwriter and film director. He was born in Kobe and grew up in Yokohama. After leaving school, he began training to become a doctor but dropped out of medical school to take up a career in films. In 1948 he became an assistant ...

in 1955, but continued her acting career, stating that she wanted to "create a new style of wife who has a job". After retiring as an actress in 1979, she published her autobiography and several essay collections. She died of lung cancer on 28 December 2010 at the age of 86.

Selected Filmography

Awards

Japan Academy Film Prize The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

*1996 Lifetime Achievement Award

Mainichi Film Concours The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

for Best Actress *1955 ''Twenty-Four Eyes'', ''Garden of Women'', ''Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky'' *1956 ''Floating Clouds'' *1958 ''Times of Joy and Sorrow'', ''Untamed'' *1962 ''Immortal Love'', ''Happiness of Us Alone'' Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress *1955 ''Twenty-Four Eyes'', ''Garden of Women'', ''Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky''

Kinema Junpo Award , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ...

for Best Actress *1956 ''Floating Clouds''

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Takamine, Hideko 1924 births 2010 deaths People from Hakodate Deaths from lung cancer in Japan 20th-century Japanese actresses Japanese child actresses Japanese film actresses Japanese autobiographers Women autobiographers